Where to go in Italy?

[ChrisGorabPhotography]

I will be in Italy for about 10 days in October with my wife. I plan on taking a LOT of pictures. I'd love some input on where to spend some time. We are staying at a house near Panicale, which is near Lake Trasimeno, which is in the middle of the country... about 2 hrs north of Rome, in between and about an hour from Siena and Assisi.

I plan on going to Assisi, Siena, Florence, Rome. If you had 8 full days there... where would you spend them?

[TheHoff]

What type of pictures do you like to shoot -- Landscape? Churches? People? Street? I think you'd get very different answers for each. I just got back from my first trip there not too long ago and one smaller city I would recommend in the Toscana / Emilia - Romangna area is Parma. It is a beautiful, friendly town full of locals (as opposed to Florence, Rome, and to an extent even Siena which have a higher percentage of tourists)... it is also graded flat for easy walking unlike some of the hillier towns. (And of course it is the home of Parma ham and Parmigiano Reggiano!)

[ChrisGorabPhotography]

Thanks for the input, but Parma would be waaay too far... probably a 4 hr drive from where we will be staying. Florence will be our farthest drive, which will be about 2 hrs. Siena and Assisi will be about 1 hr to 1 1/2 hrs. We are flying into and out of Rome, but may spend a night there to take in the tourist sights. We have a house that we're staying at for free, but I think we might want to spend a night or two away (Florence, Rome) and are looking for input where.

The majority of what I am going to shoot will be landscapes and churches. Maybe some shots of people on the streets, but not nearly as many as of the countryside and the buildings.

[TheHoff]

Sure, understood, with eight days, there is no point in wasting too much time in the car or train. (The trains are a very cheap and easy way to get around since you're mentioning larger cities with lots of stations -- so you may reconsider the car as it isn't necessary unless you want to drive to photo locations in the hills, etc).

Florence is lovely but overrun with tourists; we probably wouldn't go back but the surrounding area offers some amazing shots. So are you looking for more input on hotels to stay at or more like photo locations to hit in those cities?

[paul-t]

One of my fav. places to go in Italy is Roma, easy to get round on the metro, as it stops at nearly all the sights. Driving around Roma is better now not so many horns and fist waving out of car windows! Just down the road from Roma is Ostia, which is the old port of Roma,the ruins there are not as good as Pompeii, but they are easy to get to and cheap to get in, well worth a trip. Florence is also a fav, but are full of those orible things call tourist's, (oh yeah you will be one) but get up early and you can get shots with little or no people. Pizza is worth going to, easy from Florence by train, but you only need half a day there. Hope this helps a little, have a great trip.

[Mike]

Siena and Assisi are both great places to visit. I went 2 years ago and can heartily reccommend both for a visit. The church in Assisi where St Francis is interred is fantastic.

Also, San Gimignano is a lovely place for a visit and famed for its towers. I think it is a little west of Siena. You can climb one of the towers in the centre of the town which gives you some stunning views of the surrounding countryside. Be warned though that they won't let you take bags up the tower (they provide secure lockers) so I had to put my 70-300 lens in my pocket for the climb, with my camera and another lens around my neck.

Ignore Pisa unless you really want to see the tower. The tower and cathedral are lovely but the area around it is quite industrial and something of a dump! Also, the tower is quite poorly signposted and we spent about 30 minutes circling the town trying to find it!

Of course, you'll probably want to spend some time exploring the areas around the lakes too, which can be quite nice.

There are some similar threads at the bottom of this page.

[timnosenzo]

You can climb one of the towers in the centre of the town which gives you some stunning views of the surrounding countryside.

Looks like this! ;)

http://www.timnosenzo.com/photos/322700407_r7Lpn-M-3.jpg

[TheHoff]

Ignore Pisa unless you really want to see the tower. The tower and cathedral are lovely but the area around it is quite industrial and something of a dump! Also, the tower is quite poorly signposted and we spent about 30 minutes circling the town trying to find it!

I thought the exact same thing about Pisa -- not nearly as nice as other parts and the only thing to see is the Tower. Everyone there is either going to the tower or staying overnight and using Pisa for the airport as it has many connecting flights with London. We, however, had no trouble finding the Tower :D Just follow the crowd headed north and veer west a bit -- they're only going one place.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3233/2461163183_8181d365f7_o.jpg
http://flickr.com/photos/alexfirmani/2461163183/in/set-72157604721900548/

[tomd]

I'd definitely go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinque_Terre

[Mike]

Looks like this! ;)

Yes - that's the one:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=139799&stc=1&d=1169160127

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=139800&stc=1&d=1169160127


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3233/2461163183_8181d365f7_o.jpg

Hehe - look at all them people waving their arms around! (my wife wouldn't do it, spoilsport!)

[tomd]

Looks like a yoga class with all those arms flopping around.

[zacker]

Gotta stand on the opposite side so it looks like youre pushing it over... lol

[ChrisGorabPhotography]

Anyone familiar enough with the area to recommend how much time we might spend in each place? I know everyone's different and has different interests, so I'm really looking for some input. Anyone travel here much? Recently? Experiences?

[Lowner]

If you are heading to Florence, I'd like to suggest the Tuscany region. In fact we are heading there ourselves in late summer.

Italy is probably about the same as the rest of Europe pricewise. The big problem is that our spending patterms change when we are on holiday, changes upwards! Anyone from the US will find it expensive at the moment due to the dollar/euro exchange rate.

[ChrisGorabPhotography]

Thanks for your input. Florence and Siena are both in Tuscany, so we will be spending time there. Does anyone with experience traveling in Italy have any recommendations on how much time they'd spend in each place/town?

[TheHoff]

You could spend all 8 days in Florence and the surrounding hills; I think we spent 4 nights there. That was enough for us but would probably not be enough for someone who was touring Churches and Museums. Siena is, of course, much smaller; you could easily get your fill with two nights there... or you could spend two weeks there and really get a feel for the place.

This sort of thing is hard to describe as I'm sure we wouldn't want the same sort of vacation -- I'd just take it by the population / size of the city. The larger it is, the more time you'll want to spend there to see it.

You said:
>>We are flying into and out of Rome, but may spend a night there to take in the tourist sights

This sort of thing underestimates the size and crowds and lines and sheer size of these cities. You can stand in line for 3 hours just to get into the museum that houses Michelangelo's David... same with any of the larger Duomos and Palaces. So to say that you'll see the tourist sites of Rome with only one day there means you might see two things at most. The same case would be made with Florence -- you might plan to see two or three major attractions per day including walking time, waiting time, etc., if the major attractions are what you're after. And on top of that you have to include your driving time there and back; if I were you I would cut down the number of places you're headed and pick a few things you must see.

[TheHoff]

Here is my wife.

She is not a giant, that is a Fiat (http://www.500touringclub.com/) outside of Florence. This was the most fun of our time there.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2407/2457640586_d99fe315a3_o.jpg

[laidback71]

You could easily do a week in Rome and the surrounding area. There is so much to see and do there. If that is your landing and departure point, I would recommend dumping the car and staying there a couple of nights if you can. Some of Rome should be experienced at night. Siena is also gorgeous and I would recommend two days there. Based on the eight days you have and the cities/towns listed, I would suggest Rome 3, Florence 2, Siena 2, Assisi 1. However, if you are driving back and forth each day to your base house, you may want to shorten some of the visits, and instead focus on some of the hill towns and wineries in Tuscanny instead. Don't bother with Pisa unless you absolutely want to see the tower. The line ups to climb up are long. The campus with the church and cemetary is nice though. Rest of the city is a dump. Nearby Lucca is nicer.

You may want to consider using the trains too. They take you right into the centre and you don't have to worry about parking. Don't leave anything valuable in your car. You are better off not locking it. Leave you glove compartment open to show would be theives you have nothing to steal.

I would suggest you get Rick Steve's Italy. Even better, I would suggest his Florence & Tuscanny and Rome books. The latter have more detailed walking tours. One thing I like about his books are the walking tours. He even includes them for the museums.

http://www.ricksteves.com/

Some of the museums in Rome and Florence have long line ups. Make a reservation to avoid the hassles. This is described in most guide books.

[ChrisGorabPhotography]

Thanks again to everyone for their input. My wife and I have both been to Rome. I've also been to Florence and Assisi. I'd like to go back because I enjoyed it so much, and they're all beautiful. We're not going to take in a lot of museums, but we'd like to see some things.

We're not going to spend all of our time in those towns. We just want to make some day trips and drive around some. We'd like to spend a few nights away from our house there because we want something different, but we don't want to spend too much money on rooms or nights away because our house is free.